robscastle's Blog at LumberJocks.comhttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog
Fri, 04 Nov 2016 09:06:17 GMTJoints #7: 3WJ frame Dowel pins, bracing and shelfhttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/95874
The 3 Way Joint is progressing into a small seat due to a requirement to brace the original joints to ensure no more legs “fall off”

First up I fitted some dowel pins to the legs

This involved drilling a small hole as a guide from the top and down into each leg at an angle, then following up with a 8mm dowel hole.

As you can see the joint is far from the perfect butt joint, I cut off the excess with my japanese pull saw.

I found some suitable material for bracing and the shelf frame and then some plywwod for the seat and shelf base

Its some recycled skirting off cuts for the triangles and shelf frame.

This is where I am up to by the end of today.

that effectevly is the end of the joint work as the remainder is now fairly standard wood work.

I will add in closing that soon I am going to dress up some timber, joint and thickness it and try again with a bigger piece and see if I can get the dowels inside the joint..

Looks like becoming a little seat for my grandson Rocky.

Thanks everybody for watching and commenting.

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 09:06:17 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/95874robscastlerobscastleJoints #6: 3WJ Frame Assembled and begining the sanding then oh nohttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/95850
Well I took everything out of the clamps and it looked good

Leg Joint 1

Leg Joint 2See below

Leg Joint 3

Leg joint 4

So I commenced sanding the frame overall however right before my eyes Leg No 2 fell off!

Humm looks like EarlS was indeed correct…. and those Dominos are looking better.

The original 3 way joint picture from ChuckM

So back to the jig saw puzzle clamping again

That kinda stopped progress in one foul swoop so while I await the glue to set I begin thinking.

Thoughts were related as to how I can reinforce the frame, as I had come this far now I was not giving up.

So I decided I had better add a tray as a brace and also the addition of triangular pieces in the top as well wouldnt hurt as I needed something to support the seat insert too.

So back into my stash of recycled bits and pieces I go.

PS stuff:- I went looking for a Domino Jointer too but, well all I found was a Festool product. rats, about $1500 AUD.

I wonder does China make a unemployed persons version? I will look again.Still continuing

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 00:16:27 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/95850robscastlerobscastleJoints #5: 3 Way Joint In the begininghttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/95778
This “proof of concept” activity is a direct result of ChuckM posting a project about a 3 Way Joint he had made

It was an interesting article and generated some also interesting replies.I am always keen to try a “different” joint even if just for the heck of it so I decided to try it for myself mainly to see if I could do the same as it looked cosmetically attractive.

I do not own a domino Joiner so I was not able to strengthen the joint that way.Instead I used round dowel.

I set to work using some scrap semi rounded stock, this rounded stock also proved to be a less than satisfactory move, as holding eveything square was an added test fo me.

I also glued everything up in one clamping session.This was possibly not a good move, read on,

I cut the 45 deg ends with my compound saw.

I then attempted to glue it all together, a little tricky I must say.

I made some 90 deg braces to assist in holding everything together for the Titebond III glue to do its job

I also added a custom “bungie” cord to maintain the vertical aspect to ensure a good joint.

At this stage the remaining frame is only dry assembled in the clamps mainly to keep everything square and level as one leg is attached.

It all seemed to work OK so next was replicating the method on the second half, the diagonally opposite leg and frame.

I assembled everything as explained above and set it aside to dry.

Here is the first half out of the clamps.

Continues.

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Thu, 03 Nov 2016 06:26:04 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/95778robscastlerobscastlePhoto Finishhttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/95330
I found a piece of engineered flooring of which I thought may be of interest.

When I found it I was very rapped to find a piece of what I thought was burl veneer inlay.

its a section of ply with a laminate face

It was a bit dusty so I gave it a wipe down with a damp cloth and saw what I thought was white paint spots.

It felt really smooth so I decided to use some 120 Grit to remove the “paint” spots.

After the first sand it appeared the spots got worse.

I had a second look and to my disapointment to was actually a piece of photo image engineered flooring, boo hiss.

Not content with the disapointment I went looking on the net as to why the product would be made.There is very little documented on it (possibly for obvious reasons) but I managed to sus out a comment “can only be maintained with a light scouring pad to remove marks” cannot be resurfaced by sanding.

Oh well into the rubbish bin went my fantastic Gem of a burl find.

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Wed, 26 Oct 2016 07:51:32 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/95330robscastlerobscastleBox making Curved Front Box #17: The finished product from 2013http://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/94970
I found this box tucked away today and realised I had never completed the blog or posted it as a project way back in 2013.

Its got a few veneer chip outs which need fixing but I must have lost interest in it.

So here is a few completed shots warts and all.

I had a magpie stroll over to see what I was doing then all his mates arrived to get in the action

I just kept taking pictures and they just got closer and closer

They even checked out the internal trays as well.

They didnt bother me and I guess maybe they thought I had made them a nesting box.

So thats it all complete just three years later !!

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Thu, 20 Oct 2016 01:25:53 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/94970robscastlerobscastleFurniture #19: The 1500mm x 1500mm Table Dry Assembledhttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/94962
For any of the LJs interested in seeing just how big this monster is I thought I had better add these final photos before the table heads off to my Sons Place for Christmas.

Its just dry assembled at this stage hence if you spot some parts missing thats why.

The top as reported previously has suffered shrinkage all around the various spots on the edges and also across one of the table top joins.

Its nothing unexpected but I didnt think it would be as pronounced as it is

In this photo you can see a filler piece sitting in the gap completley across the top

There is also a minor shrinkage showing here but its not full length like the first picture, it will possibly just get filler.

Here is some of the edge areas where shrinkage has also occuredthere is not a lot I can do here until its in place and normalised then decide a fix.

So why did it happen?... natural movement of wood and possibly variances in EMC at the build stage

I do not really know apart from the fact is iis shrinkage.

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Thu, 20 Oct 2016 01:04:22 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/94962robscastlerobscastleCFrye inspired Pizza Peel: More material rough sawing and preparinghttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/94114
First up I need to post a picture of the reverse glue joint profile for Candy to take a look at.

Reverse Glue Joint at 90 degrees (at glue up)

Reverse Glue Joint at 45 degrees (after cutting the nose profile)

Now consider that the Joint originally looked something like this.

The pictures wouldnt get a conviction in a court of law but they are the best I can do at the moment

Now another visit to the band saw got the final profile sawn out ready for finishing.

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Tue, 04 Oct 2016 09:26:57 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/94082robscastlerobscastleCFrye inspired Pizza Peel: Material rough sawing and edginghttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/93898
I took the Pizza Peel out of the clamps, cleaned off the residue glue with a scraper and had a good look at it.

One of the sides.

And then the other side

It was flat enough to begin trimming it to size with the table saw.

The angle on the front is 15 degrees.

That will have to do for today….. need to run the wife around she just had a knee replacement operation.

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Sat, 01 Oct 2016 08:38:07 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/93898robscastlerobscastleMaking my Backline Panel Clampshttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/93786
When I made the 1500mm x 1500mm Table top for my Son I needed some big Panel Clamps Like 1800mm or there abouts.

I didnt have any thing that big so I went looking for Commercial Panel Clamps

I found quite a few panel clamps and list them below, there is possibly more as well.

Panel Clamps:-

Damstom D 300 Black edition about $38 eachWoodtek Equi pressure Clamps about $25 eachFrontline Engineering Clamps about $400 each Woodriver Clamps about $31 eachDouble Bar Clamps kits anout $54 eachPlano Panel Clamps about $219 eachApart from the Damstom, all the clamps in the $25 to $54 required the user to supply their timber rails to suit the dimensions required.The Frontline and Plano panel clamps had extension units to make them longer.

I could have also been able to buy 4 x sets of parallel Jaw clamps as well.

So I was up for a large capital outlay ($1000) if I went this way.

Otherwise buy timber rails rails and make my own.

The top end Panel Clamps were way beyond my hobby budget but I liked the principle.I am not saying they are not worth it either!

To overcome the $ problem I bought two lengths of 40mm Unistrut at 6m, a heap of bolts, wing nuts and spacer washers.

I have a good friend who is a “gun” metal fabricator and he made the clamping assemblies for me at nil cost, (well may be there was a slab of beer in there somewhere)

The Panel Clamps in use with the 1500 table panel

The Panel Clamps in use with the CFrye Pizza Peel

It was the posting of the Pizza Peel blog which prompted to Clamp blog post.

How I did it.Cut the unistruts into six 2 m lengths using a metal cut off saw

Buy a heap of wing nuts bolts and spacer washers, you dont need as many as you see I have!

The Piza Peel out of the clamps and a straight edge sitting on top in various positions and sides, after I scraped the glue residue off.

P1 S1

P2 S1

P1 S2

P2 S2

Conclusion:-

In their 2 m form they are a bit unweildly so I intend to buy another length of Unistrut and cut it into shorter lengths, hence all the addition bolts etc.

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Fri, 30 Sep 2016 00:23:01 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/93786robscastlerobscastleCFrye inspired Pizza Peel: Material preparation and glue up stage http://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/93594
No 2 son spotted Candy’s Pizza Party for a Cause pizza peel and asked if I could make something similar for his family’

Originally he was going to fabricate a metal base however after seeing “Wally’s Huon Beams” he decided I should do it instead!

He sent me the design of what he was going to build and asked it I could use the beams and make it in wood.making the vertical post 150mm x 150mm the legs 1m x 150mm x 75mm and the support braces 100mm x 70mm.

I agreed of course, what else had I to do but work out with these beams at my age!

I wrestled the beam up onto my combination saw and set it up to cut it so I had the pieces into more managable sizes

Now this turned out to be quite a challange due to the size of my saw and the material I was trying to cut.

I needed to make three cuts so I had a datum point to reset the position of the blade accurately as I turned the beam, it took quite a lot of positioning and checking to get the most accurate cut possible.

I achieved about half a kerf accuracy and reasonable squareness in the process.

Next just to really push the envelope I needed 45 degree cuts on each of the two base pieces.

The results were not quite as accurate this time adding also an extra step as well which required final cutting with a hand saw to complete the cuts.

and another view

Then it was on to cutting the Half Lap Joint.

I used my table saw to do this mainly for accuracy and ease of cutting.

This task took quite a bit of time and needed some fine tuning to get the fit I wanted.

I then dry assembled the legs and sat the vertical post in place.

I looked at it and thought it was too big and too ugly and was a waste of timber.

However I pressed on and cut the feet in and reduced the overall height of the feet.To cut the feet pads I used the table saw to make four rip cuts and two cross cuts again finishing with a panel saw. As I worked away thinking how hard it was a thought entered my head as to how Noah managed to make his Ark, this made me feel a bit more confident and I pressed on.

After that I then dry assembled everything again and looked at it, thinking ithis time it was begining to look OK after all.

Next I cut the vertical post to size and started on the diagonal braces.

Again this process required duplicated work, cutting the 45 deg angles on the combination saw, then using the panel saw to complete the cut, then and added step of sanding off the differences in kerfs.

I again dry assembled the base and tacked the diagonals in place to check what it would look like.

This time I was more impressed with the build

I think it had turned out OK after all

Conclusion:

The work again exceeded my skills and definately pushed my basic tools to the limit.I now have to figure out how to fasten everything together, all a bit beyond my 25 to 32mm screws!!I must say my Ozito combination saw worked really well for a el cheapo DIY item!Needless tosay if this was timber other than Huon pine the results would have been some what different.

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Tue, 27 Sep 2016 09:24:47 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/93530robscastlerobscastleWorking with recycled timber #67: Organic Bar Stool Profiling the seat to the frame and staining (end of blog)http://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/92962
Ok I got busy making wood snow all through the driveway and grass area today.I used the rotary micro planner and sander to get the final sanding done.

Profiling

View From the front:-

View Right side:-

View From the Rear:-

View Left Side:-

Staining

view Front left:-

View Rear Left:-

View Right top:-

After I prepared all these I was in two minds as to post them realising they would be of little interest as everyone just loves sanding and staining blogs !! oh well I went to the effort so here they stay.

Definately the last in the series,Next will be surface finish and then straight to a project post.Thanks for following, watching, reading and commenting, I had better go back now and respond to you all!

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Sat, 17 Sep 2016 02:57:25 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/92962robscastlerobscastleWorking with recycled timber #66: Organic Bar Stool Some mods and seat fittmenthttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/92938
This Bar stool is proving to be a little bit more than a job spanning a “cuppla days”.In fact the work required is quite a learning aspect for me.Just when you think all the work is done more comes to light.

Like the top leg Mods, I was looking at the original post and noticed the top of the legs had radiuses on all four sides but not the bottom, something I completely misses at the design stage.

The Leg Modifications:-

To achieve the required finished curve I needed to add aditional timber to the sides of the legs for shaping later.

This is possibly not the best move as its structural support qualities have got to be almost zero, they are purely cosmetic in my efforts to replicate as closely as possible.

Now trying to hold 45 deg blocks on with clamps failed so this time I used white electrical tape.

Once the glue had dried, it was out with the turbo planer and micro planer.

It took considerable care as I was planing almost cross grain and chip out was occuring very easly.

I eventually got there and progressed to fitting the seat, (which was were I though I was two days ago).

The Seat fittment

The tops of the legs and underside of the seat were drilled out and dowels fitted then the seat was glued on.

The milk crate above the seat is ballast, a bag of sand for a weight.

All now are drying yet again, so stand by for possibly another blog in the series,... then hopefully finished and posted as a project.

I fitted all the perimeter braces to the stool, the three diagonal ones went on the two sides and back and the Foot rest went on the front.

The three diagonal ones I bandsawed to shape first, as per the footrest shown previously.

I could only do rough bandsawing but at least it removed most of the bulk material from the curves prior to glue up. done Mon night.

The glue up:-

This proved to be quite tricky as clamping was almost impossible, every time I applied a clamp it either fell off or pushed the braces off station, so I bound all the joints with cling wrap, a bit “outa there” woodworking wise but that was the solution I thought of.

After the glue had dried it was out with the microplane rotary power driven file. ( a day later Tue)

I profiled everything down and shaped them into the main structure. This took quite a considerable amount of time, created heaps of wood “snow” and eventually I got to a reasonable rough profile ready to continue to smooth later to remove the divets I caused by me falling asleep on the job.

The stool looking at the front.

The seat is only just sitting in place for orientation, I left the bottom temporary plate in place to prevent damage to the feet edges as I rotated the stool around microplaning each side.

Then views from each aspect

The left side:

The Back side or rear view

The Right Side

And finally,A view from the top, with the seat now removed.

all that remains now is to sand the dings out and smooth the overall profile and fit the seat

So possibly this is the last blog before Project Posting (if all goes well) fingers crossed!!

I needed three cross braces at an angle of about 30 deg and the foot rest at 90 deg

As I had lots of off cuts from the frame shaping I used them to widen the braces at points of attachment

Trying to workout the correct angles to cut material for a 45 deg angle and incline of 30 deg then a taper for 5 deg for the braces saw me give up, so instead I just kept cuttng and fitting until I got it right.

I even had two saws set up to do it.

No doubt there is possibly a formula around some where but I could not find it!

The braces

I left them to let the glue set and started to profile the seat

The seat work

Tools:For the seat I used a Arbortech Turboplane fitted to an angle grinder.For the frame I used a Guinevere flexible shaft fitted with a 50mm microplaner.

Both remove timber faster than a Wet Beaver building a dam!

That was enough mess and noise for today so I cleaned up and packed up.

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Sun, 11 Sep 2016 03:05:52 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/92690robscastlerobscastleWorking with recycled timber #63: Organic Bar Stool Frame work and rough outhttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/92522
I continued on the Organic Bar Stool this morning.First up made the seat top, I biscuit jointed some Oregon together and then laminated the two sections.

The dimensions are about 350mm square at this stage

Left it for the glue to set and continued on the stool framework

Starting on the internal braces

I used my biscuit jointer to butt join the braces to the four posts.I was a bit squeezy getting in there but all went well.

Once I had them all in it was time to rough out the general pattern

The band saw, Jig saw and Osc sander all fired up and worked away all day cutting and finishing the general profiles.

Then a run around with a round over bit and that was enough for today, as I am at a bit of a loss as to how to do the periimeter braces at the moment.

Reassembled everything and cleaned up and packed up.

Now sadly I have to work tomorrow and Monday so I have blown my project in a cuppla days gloat.

Michael didnt post too much construction detail and I was curious how it was made, so rather than ask a heap of questions I thought it would be better to find out for myself by experiment.So I set to work today.

From my pile of recycled wood came five suitable pieces to make the legs and braces

A tidy up with the thicknesser, and on with it.

Then some temporary plates to assist in the assembly were fitted.

I determined the legs should be 750mm and a splay angle of 5 deg should do it.

Now the seat will be about 300 to 340mm sq or thereaboutsSo I cut a blank and screwed it on, inverted the frame and aligned the legs and measured the bottom distance cut a piece of MDF to be used as a temporary blank and fitted it, and then from Michaels finished picture tried to determine how I would go about its rough construction.

The internal diagonals shouldnt be too much of a problem so I left them for the time being.The perimeter diagonals are a different matter, they were too hard just yet so I looked at the horizontal foot rest, it was less tricky so I started on it.

Just about all the perimeter braces will have to have 5 deg tapering bevels on them as well as the foot rest but at least it was at 90 deg.

I fiddled about and figured out how to cut them, got it done and dry fitted it up, then realised I needed to add wings to allow for the curved carving radius later.

I hope this will be a sucessful build, all a bit on the ambitious side but what the hell can only try, no doubt another prototype as its pine, but it should work.

I will post it as a completed project in a coupla days. (yeah right)

Just so you will not be dissapointed there will be no Miss Makita 2016 featured,....unless some hottie looks over the fence as I am working!...( and my wife doesnt see her)

Continues on, more tomorrow До свидания!

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Wed, 07 Sep 2016 05:02:07 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/92418robscastlerobscastleWorking with recycled timber #61: 2100 x 150 x150 Challengehttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/91970
I was fortunate enough to obtain a heap of timber beams from under the house of my friend Wally.

It was also fortunate I had No1 and No3 son staying for the weekend and they assisted in loading and unloading the material.

There were ten beams overall, The 2 x grey chamfered ones being Oregon, and the remaining seven being a pine species, either Hoop Pine or Huon Pine, both species getting into the hard to find category and the Huon pine is a timber no longer allowed to be cut down and a licence to mill it is held by only 3 sawmills which leads to the pine being recovered from waterways for the next two generations possibly making it very expensive to buy these days.

Here is the stack the boys did.

Some dimensions checked:

One of the beams is yet to be accurately identified its the runt in the stack.

Now for the Challenge

No1 son (who I made the 1500×1500mm table top for) wants a rustic narrow long hall table and was keen to use the timber we had just received.

So today I set to work cutting one up, I chose the 2100 length because it was the lightest and only just managable by me on my own.

I wrestled it onto the table saw and set up some in and out feed rollers to assist me.

I determined I could cut three pieces at 48mm to maximise the timber,

I checked the beam and it had a bow in it on one side, but the remaining sides were surprisingly straight and square, So I worked out I could do two cuts in from each side then invert and repeat without having to joint it first, you would not get away with missing this step with the timber sold these days!

So it was a slow careful feed.

Ripping :

The first two cuts:

All went well so I continued on and did two more. The bow is visible in the middle if you look closely!

Edge trueing:

I attached my straight edge onto the side of the beam using double sided tape, all the tape did really was to stop it from sliding around, and again I worked it through the saw.

Thicknessing:

I didnt take any in progress shots of the thicknessing, but hey, thicknessing is thicknessing, the results are the important aspect so here they are.

For what it is, just pine is its beautiful timber so its “Challenge Completed”.

Now I will just have to wait for assistance with the rest.

The Table Saw:

Did the saw like it? well a bit of belt screeching occured at one time of which was possibly my fault I think, as a slight check on the alignment stopped it imediately and all was well again.

Mind you a sharp blade is essential!

I dont think it would be the same story if I was silly enough to do a full depth cut like this with a similar hardwood variety. I could however possibly do incremental cuts if it was really required.

Closure:

Similar timber like this (Doulas Fir/Oregon) sells for about $35 to $45 per Lm

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Wed, 31 Aug 2016 06:40:01 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/91970robscastlerobscastleWorking with recycled timber #60: Ben Clark Memorialhttp://lumberjocks.com/robscastle/blog/91490
If you follow my many exploits with recycled timber you may have seen the Smiths Potato crates I repair and in the process make a variety of items rescued from the rubbish pile.

Well I was approached to make something else this time.The Fork lift driver who delivered the Potato Crates for me to repair, Ben Clark passed away at age 45.

He had been with Smiths for 20 Years and his mates wanted to make a memorial for him using some of the timber from one of the potato crates.

This was my effort in assisting them

Its an off cut from the damaged boards.

The timber is JarrahAs you can see its covered in Mud and dirt from the potatoes, however beneath the weathered surface lies some beautiful timber.

So out with the wire brush and metal detector first up, then into the thicknesser to bring it back to its former glory.

I used the bandsaw to cut out the fork lift profile and normal saw for the backing pieces and chamfered the edges.

The engraved plate was supplied by Ben’s work mates All I did was sand the timber and then using polishing compound and buffing wheel produced the final result

I screwed the pieces together and returned them to Bens mates to set up somewhere within the Smiths Complex.